House

Parent Place or Precinct

27310 Park Street Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance:
• As a good representative example of the many 4-5 room brick homes which were built in Subiaco during the early twentieth century to meet the needs and aspirations of middle-class residents such as public servants, senior office workers, small business owners, skilled tradesmen and single/widowed women of private means.
• As a good representative example of the application of materials and detailing which were derived from the Federation Queen Anne style, but which were applied in a more restrained manner that suited the budgets and expectations of the middle classes in Subiaco during the early twentieth century.
• For its aesthetic contribution to a largely intact group of early twentieth century houses.For information on the significance of the Park Street Heritage Area refer to the Local Planning Policy for the Heritage Area.

Physical Description

Architectural style
Typical of many well built 2-3 bedroom suburban houses of the early twentieth century, 90 Olive Street incorporated elements of the Federation Queen Anne style. It was designed to a scale and form generally considered suitable for occupiers such as small business owners, office workers, senior retail employees and skilled tradesmen.
Plan form at the street frontage
• Asymmetrical façade, featuring a projecting wing with shallow rectangular window bay on the southern side of the main facade, and a verandah across the remainder of the frontage.
Roof form and materials
• Hipped-gabled roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
• Louvered gablets at either end of the short, north-south ridgeline.
• Prominent verge gable with a roughcast rendered face and a decorative pattern of vertical timber battens and triple arched panels.
• Tuck-pointed chimneys with rendered projecting caps.
• Hipped bull-nose verandah roof.
Wall materials and finishes to the main facade
• Tuck-pointed brick walls.
• Two rendered stringcourses, one at about 1.8m above floor level and the other at window sill height.
Other detailing to main facade
• Entrance door adjacent to the projecting wing. This includes a 5-panel door, traditional moulded timber architraves, sidelights, highlight and stained glass panels.
• Bull-nosed window hood to the face of the shallow window bay to the projecting wing (sympathetic to the style of the place, but not original).
• Bank of triple double-hung windows to the face of the window bay, comprising a wide central window, flanked by narrow windows. Set over a projecting moulded window sill with a decorative under-sill panel.
• Matching triple double-hung windows under the verandah.
• Three arched, rendered niches under the verandah, each with moulded projecting sills and decorative under-sill panels – two facing west (on either side of the window) and one facing north (adjacent to the door).
• Turned timber verandah posts, with carved brackets (sympathetic to the style of the place, but not original).
Streetscape setting
• House set back approximately 2.7m from the Olive Street frontage.
• Lot width approximately 12.2m.
• Built up to a parapet wall along the northern boundary; side setback of approximately 2m from the southern boundary.
• Front yard enclosed by a low, visually open metal fence backed by a low clipped hedge.

History

Subiaco's population increased significantly in the 1890s due to an economic depression in the eastern states and the discovery of gold in Western Australia. During the 1890s property developers bought large landholdings for subdivision in the Perth metropolitan area. The original subdivisions in Subiaco were generally simple grid pattern developments with small lots suitable for occupancy by working families. However, the more elevated parts of the suburb, particularly towards Kings Park, also attracted business and professional men and some lots were later amalgamated to accommodate their larger homes and gardens. Mixed development occurred and within the Park Street Heritage Area this ranged from narrow, single storey terrace housing through to a large 2-storey house set in spacious grounds. The readily available evidence indicates that the number of houses within this area increased from around 24 in 1901 to 72 in 1906; 86 in 1910; 91 in 1915, 94 in 1920 and 13 by 1925. Development then stabilised, with 106 houses and 1 block of flats identified in 1949.
Perth Suburban Lots 218 and 219 were subdivided as Deposited Plan 214 in the early 1890s. This comprised 52 lots, including 24 lots with frontages to Ivy Street, which extended between Barker and Bagot Roads (renamed as part of Olive Street in c.1901). In 1903 the Subiaco Rate Books listed Lot 17 as vacant land, but by 1905 the site had been developed with a house owned & occupied by E Chandler (plasterer). 90 Olive Street was first listed in the Post Office Directories in 1906, when Ernest Chandler (plasterer) was identified as the primary occupant (remaining here until c.1907). In late 1906-early 1907 a number of a brief newspaper items referred to Mrs E A Chandler’s Olive Street home as “Marleigh”.
At that time there were three plasterers with the surname Chandler living in Subiaco. An analysis of online family trees and birth/death records suggests that these were brothers, James Thomas Chandler (born c.1862-1938); Frederick Charles Chandler (c.1866-1910) and Ernest Albert Chandler (c.1868-1951). In the Subiaco Rate Books of 1906, James Thomas Chandler was identified as a builder and it is therefore possible that the family were involved in the construction of their own houses at 148 Barker Road (constructed c.1902 and occupied by Frederick); 90 Olive Street (constructed c.1905 and occupied by Ernest); and 140 Barker Road (occupied by James until he moved to a newly built house at 72 Heytesbury Road in c.1906).
The first long-term owner/occupiers of 90 Olive Street were the Parsons family. Roland Edward Parsons (c.1880-1954) and Evelyn Victoria Tonkin (c.1886-1961) were married in Perth in c.1908 and they had at least 4 children: Francis, Beryl, Ken and Doris. This couple had settled at 90 Olive Street by 1922 and remained here until around the time of Roland’s death. During this time, Roland worked as a fitter and then Electrical and Signal Inspector for the WAGR, until he retired in 1945.
A plan of the lot prepared in 1927 and reviewed in 1955 for the purpose of planning sewerage and water supply services shows that the original footprint of the cottage has almost doubled in size. A review of aerial photographs of the place since the mid 20th century confirm that the large addition at the rear of the cottage was undertaken in 2003. The original roof cladding was corrugated iron.
90 Olive Street was adopted on the City of Subiaco Local Heritage Survey in 2003. It has been assessed as level 3 (contributes to the heritage of the City of Subiaco).

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity - High: The place continues to be used as a private residence.
Authenticity - High: The original external form and detailing of the building is largely intact.

Condition

Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in excellent condition.

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.